Featured Artist

I was just featured on Cleveland Handmade! W00-hoo, check it out when you have the time :)

http://www.clevelandhandmade.com/2010/01/shannen-cleis-happy-elephant-designs/

Harry Chapin and my Epiphany

This weekend I was driving to Akron to go to a Baby Shower with my sister and I was jamming to some tunes on my iPod. I don't know if any of you are familiar with Harry Chapin, but I was raised listening to him, Billy Joel, Cat Stevens...etc. You couldn't be in my family without loving Harry and belting out his tunes (just ask my siblings spouses...they just LOVE it! lol)



So I'm listening to one of my favorites by him called Mr. Tanner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea6cgfU8bC4 and the words for the chorus really took on a different meaning this time to me. I don't know if it's cause I've been re-evaluating my company and trying to think of ways to turning it into a more profitable business, but those three sentences really touched a chord in my heart...



(chorus)

But music was his life, it was not his livelihood,and it made him feel so happy and it made him feel so good. And he sang from his heart and he sang from his soul. He did not know how well he sang; It just made him whole.



If you substituted 'music' for 'creating' in the chorus that is exactly how I feel. And it made me realize that I need to stop worrying about what other people think of my creations. Stop stressing about how to make my cards geared more towards the mass audience so that they will sell, but to make what is in my heart...and if it sells, then it sells. If not, then oh well.



That's not to say that I'm not going to try and make this business a success, but I'm going to try and do it so that my soul is still happy with my work!

Inspiration and the art at looking at things differently

I'm obsessed with shows like Top Chef and Project Runway. Especially the challenges where the chef's/artist have the same ingredients/materials and have to make something out of it. It fascinates me that people with the same stuff can make something completely different!

This is why I find art and creativity amazing. The different ways that people have of looking at the same exact things....that's just great! Even in my own studio, where I'm looking at the same materials that I had the day before. Yet I am inspired to create totally different things from day to day.

2010 Resolutions for Happy Elephant Designs

The new year is upon us, which is a perfect time for me to sit down and re-evalute where I want this company to go. For the new year I would love to have more sales, get my cards out there more, and create, create, create! In order to do this I made a list of 13 things that I think would help me do this. Hopefully I'm not biting off more than I can chew! :)

Here goes:

1. re-vamp my etsy shop and 1000 market shop so that it is geared more towards inviations (which I think sell better on-line than individual cards).

2. Read up more on how to letterpress with my new machine and then implemant it.

3. Market myself more by advertising (cheaply)...like with Project Wonderful Ads, twitter, Facebook, blogging, chatting in Etsy, etc.

4. Blog at least once a week and get more followers. This may be a challenge, but I believe it will help me get my business out there and make a connection with the community.

5. Learn more about Facebook Fanpage and implemant it.

6. Become more involved with my teams, especially Cleveland Team. I feel that there are alot of opportunities out there in that team that I'm not utilizing.

7. Get stock up to at least 100 cards so that I will have cards to list once a day.

8. Rotate stock more at the brick and mortar shops that I'm in. I believe I will sell more if I keep the merchandise fresh.

9. List at least once a day on Etsy and 1K market. This means doing a better job of getting my pictures taken of the cards.

10. Utilize my GA and SEO better.

11. Make Holiday cards at least @ months prior to that Holiday and get them in the shops and online.

12. Read all the articles in my inbox that I've been meaning to get too. There are some great tools in those articles that I've been putting off that I think will help me become more succesful.

13. Jump into the forums on both the 1K market and Etsy to get my name out there.

One of my favorite techniqes

I wanted to share with you a technique I like to use sometimes that is quick and easy, and that anyone can do. It's a great way to add texture to your cards or any project. Here is what I used:



A punch (any kind, I used 1 3/4 circle punch)
Files (I used a 3M file for the bigger circles and a small file for the half circles)

You also need textured cardstock with a white core. The white core is important because when you sand the punch, the white core comes through. This is what gives the card it's dimension.



I then punched some circles out of the textured cardstock. I cut some of the circles in half to use on the edge of the card. Then I sanded the circles and half circles with my files.






After all the circles are sanded, I rearrange them on the card until I get a pattern that feels right to me. The card consists of a white card with sage green cardstock cut slightly smaller, and then the purple textured cardstock cut slightly smaller than that. When I have a pattern that feels right with the circles, I place the cirlces in my Xyron machine. A Xyron machine can make anything you place into it a sticker. You can use any form of adhesive you feel comfortable with though.

Take the circles off the Xyron sheet and adhere to the card. I chose to put a polka-dot ribbon with a metal buckle at the bottom of the card.

Here's the finished product! This is a great technique to use for the up coming Holidays. All you need to do is use a Holiday punch and you can make your own pattern paper.

I hope you enjoyed learning this technique as much as I enjoy doing it.

You never know when...

So I made a Halloween Card for my daughters gymnastics Teacher and gave it to her today. I made sure that on the back I had my label which has my name, my company's name, phone number, and shop addresses (because you never know who is going to receive your card and love it! ).



She was floored by it and loved it so much. It turns out her and her Mom own the place. She didn't know I made cards for a living and wanted to know if I could make Birthday Invitations for their upcoming parties that they are throwing. I told her I LOVE designing cards, so if she gives me the general idea and some colors, I could make up a sample for her, then she could okay it and I would make the cards.


Then she said she wanted to expand the front of the reception area to be more of a pro-shop and that she would also love to display my cards there for parents to buy! This is a perfect situation for me. The receptionist (a friend of mine) says that parents are always milling around their waiting for the kids to be done with their classes, and end up buying things just out of boredom. So what a perfect place to have my cards, I'll have a captive audience who most likely have expendable money (the classes aren't cheap, but thanks to my Mom, my daughter can go).


So I wanted to let you all know that you never know when opportunties will come up. That one free card can turn into many possiblitles to making money!

Light Box

So I purchased a light box to better my photo's. Thanks to some nice fellow card makers, I found the perfect one on Amazon.com and set it up with help. Above is a picture of the light box fully assembled. I went to Walmart and purchased 3 lights with two 25 watt Ott lights.
I was excited to see if it would make a difference in my photo's.

What do you think? Here is a picture of my new card Pumpkin Harvest.












And I re-took a picture of my Fairy Princess stick figure girl.














Here's my light box set-up.